3.1 - The Conquest of Far

Synopsis

Earth Alliance, the future Fleet commanders receive their orders from the President of Earth. Operation Far is go. As soon as the planets are suitably aligned, the attack will go ahead.

The Doctor and Jo arrive on the planet Far. The Doctor wants to attend the grand opening of one of the human races greatest achievements. A huge Hyper Gateway built to make travel around Earths great empire more convenient, bringing relief to many starving outer colonies.

But they land in the wrong time period, long after the Gateway has been in service, and the Daleks have conquered Far! Its the middle of a war and a deadly game is underway. When everyone has an agenda, betrayal can happen at any time, from any side. The endgame is approaching and maybe this time no one will survive.

Set right after the Planet of the Daleks, this story finds the Doctor landing on the conquered world of Far where the Daleks have enslaved the populace and subjected them to radiation that is mutating them. The Doctor and Jo arrive on the planet and separated.

This is mostly a solid outing. The story has some complexities and twists that went beyond the typical annual Terry Nation Dalek story that was the Doctor's lot in Seasons 9-11. In the first two episodes, there's some great space action. atmosphere, and quite a few surprises.

Episode 3 hurts the story. It seems to slow down and become very predictable with a week cliffhanger. It still manages to have a solid conclusion, but a strong third episode could have made it even better.

This is a very unique escapade for the Third Doctor in that it continues directly on from a TV story "Planet of the Daleks" (and if we're being very technical "Frontier in Space"). The Doctor and Jo have just defeated the Daleks on the planet of Spiridon and are headed back to Earth when the TARDIS gets pulled out of the vortex on to the planet of Far. The Doctor is expecting a planet of great prowess and technological achievement and so what he sees surprises the hell out of him. The planet has been completely decimated and taken over by the Daleks and a war is underway to take back the planet. Are the Doctor and Jo ready to take on the nightmare of the Daleks once again or is the weariness of the past few adventures beginning to take its toll? On paper, this one sounds like a very traditional Dalek story but there's a very specific reason for it to exist especially as a continuation of a duo of TV stories effectively making it a trilogy. After the past two stories and twelve episodes of effort in doing their absolute best to stop the Daleks, 'Conquest' essentially makes all of that null and void and really hammers home the futility of fighting the Daleks. With their persistence and diligently evil nature, no matter when and where they lose the battle they always manage to continue the war somewhere else stronger than ever. It's a brilliant idea for a story and a very powerfully dark message to convey for the Daleks and it really hits our two leads hard particularly Jo. This is really her story and Katy's performance this time around is absolutely stunning as her bubbly personality as Jo takes a little bit of a downturn with her realization that her efforts in previous adventures were seemingly all for naught. Her voice and inflection are so powerful in those moments and it brings some unique moments that we really don't get out of her character as much. But yet despite all of that, she never gives up and still does her absolute best no matter how futile it may seem and it shows how awesome Jo is at even at her worst moments. I also always love hearing Briggs as the Daleks in a story and getting them in a new Third Doctor gave me such chills especially in how dark they end up going. Many darker themes of a Dalek occupation (even mentions of concentration camps) are explored in this one even if we don't see them as much as I'd like. Combined with the creepy sound design and gritty tone that this one conveys and you get a really well done 'horror and futility of war' sci-fi story that really nails what it's trying to do. There are a few small annoyances in this one though that make it a tad less than perfect. The side cast is a little bit on the standard side and the script is a bit flat in that it follow a few overdone tropes that I really wish it hadn't. Once again Doctor and companion get separated for the majority of the story which annoyed me a bit, I'm never fond of extensive sewer sections of anything no matter how good something is, and the ending isn't the greatest or what I necessarily wanted especially considering the amazing setup and themes that it had spent so much with. Treloar's performance as Three is also a little weaker than normal and it doesn't stand out as much as other stories he's voiced for Pertwee. As a whole though, 'Conquest' is a great Dalek story with a strong theme, powerful performance by one of the best leads / companions in all of Who history, and a dark new edge to our favorite pepperpot menace.

In The Conquest of Far, the Doctor (Tim Treloar) and Jo (Katy Manning) have just defeated the Daleks on Spiridon, and are heading back to Earth, when an unknown force pulls the Doctor and Jo to the planet Far. Arriving there, the Doctor expects to find one of the greatest achievements of the human race; instead, he finds an unfamiliar planet conquered by the Daleks, in the middle of a war to take back the planet. Caught up once again in the horrors of the Daleks, the Doctor and Jo must come to face the hopelessness of fighting the Daleks; but they'll have to work to ensure they survive. The Conquest of Far is, on paper, a bit of a useless story. Coming on the heels of two Dalek stories comes a third Dalek story? But this story is important, for showing a different aspect of the Daleks and their relationship with the Doctor/companion group, in that it shows the weariness of the companion, realizing that all their efforts against the Daleks are for naught as, like a cancer, the Daleks simply show up again somewhere else, as strong as ever. In that respect, The Conquest of Far is an excellent story, showing the despair of Katy Manning's Jo Grant as she finds out their efforts to stop the Daleks did nothing to prevent them rising up elsewhere, and her efforts to stop them.

Katy Manning and Tim Treloar star as Jo Grant and the Third Doctor, reprising their roles from the previous two sets. Katy Manning is, as always, absolutely brilliant as Jo Grant. I'm always impressed and a little scared by how well Manning is able to revert to her younger Jo voice so easily, because she sounds a little older, but she has such a youthful quality to her voice here. But Manning was at her best at the start of the story, and as she was trying to solve the problem of the Daleks throughout the story. She shone in the first part of the story, as she was separated from the Doctor, and took charge while still being deeply unsure of herself. Tim Treloar also reprises his role as the recast Third Doctor, taking over for Pertwee here. Compared with the last set, I thought Treloar was a bit shaky here in this first story, kinda shifting in and out of his Pertwee impression. However, he capture the feel and gravitas that Pertwee brought to the role extremely well, even as he mostly sat this story on the sidelines.

The guest cast for this story included a number of excellent actors, namely the excellent John Banks, Amy Newton, and writer/director/producer/actor Nicholas Briggs. John Banks is probably the highlight of the guest cast for me, both in his earnest performance as the person who finds and saves the Doctor, Jickster, but also because it's lovely to see Banks, generally a bit actor brought in due to his versatility, get more of a starring role in this story. Newton is another strong part of the guest cast, as the Daleks' kidnapped scientist Elaquon. She gives a simultaneously sensitive and hardened performance, with her sort of, "stiff upper lip" performance shining through, even as she remains fearful of the Daleks. Finally, Nicholas Briggs joins the cast as the Daleks, in his first appearance in a Third Doctor story at Big Finsh as the Doctor's sworn enemies. Briggs is always excellent as the Daleks, and this story is no exception. He portrays the Daleks, as well as the Dalek mutants, with a mad glee of sorts, making some of the Daleks in this story even more unsettling than they already are.

The story of The Conquest of Far is a type of Dalek story I really like, one that shows the horror of the Daleks, and their disturbing nature. The story starts off with Jo's realization that she her and the Doctor's efforts in the previous two adventures were all for naught, as the Daleks still survived. I think this is an extremely important story for that reason, and Briggs did a great job realizing it. Because of this, Briggs is able to take the character of Jo Grant to new places that we've not seen yet, such as showing her despairing, but very quickly turning around and realizing that she had to work to survive and save the human race. Jo has long been one of my favorite companions of the TV series, and I think Briggs really got to the heart of why I like her so much; while she's continually scared and fears she's in over her head, she always works to come out on top. While Briggs' work with Jo was great, I also really liked the story, as it had the horrific Dalek element to it, much like Briggs' work for the Eighth Doctor Adventures finale, Lucie Miller/To the Death, speculating on the horrors of a million Robomen army from the armies of Earth. Where the script falls a little flat is not actually showing much of that, but instead giving the Doctor and Jo a win in their fight against the Daleks. It makes for a great story, especially given the character work given to Jo, but it doesn't make for the most interesting of endings here.

David Nagel and Joe Meiners collaborated on the sound design work for here, and gave the story a really creepy feel. Lots of echoing steps and noises from far off permeated the story. One of the stylistic choices I appreciated most in this story was the decision to have the Daleks sound far off for the first part of the story, as it gave the story a sort of horrific feel to it. The traditional Dalek elements are all there too, from the Dalek "heartbeat" to the Third Doctor era Dalek gun noises as well. Overall, the sound design really made this story pop, sending me headfirst into the Pertwee era of Doctor Who.

Overall, The Conquest of Far is a very strong type of Dalek story, the kind that I particularly like. It did a lot of great character work for Jo Grant, which was realized brilliantly by Katy Manning, while Tim Treloar did a good job, though was mostly on the sidelines for the story. The guest cast, especially John Banks and Amy Newton did a great job, while Nick Briggs pulled quadruple duty here excellently. It was a great story to start off the set, and another great entry into the Third Doctor Adventures releases.